Upper Nyack resident and renowned yogi Dr. Pierre Arnold Bernard (better known as The Omnipotent Oom or Theos Bernard) took pity on the refugee's plight, and offered his empty elephant stable at the Clarkstown Country Club for their uses, known as the Elephant House. The expansive structure allowed for Fr. Adrian set up a temporary church and construct monastic cells. The iconostasis was built out of cardboard and the only icon hanging on the wall was an original portrait of St. Seraphim of Sarov that Fr. Adrian had recovered and taken with him into exile from Kiev. The first service held was the Divine Liturgy on the Feast of the Protection of the Mother of God.

The parish savings added up to 50 cents, but as word spread of a new spiritual center being built north of New York City, volunteers began arriving on a regular basis to help in any way possible. The arrival from Germany of Abbess Emilia with a group of elderly nuns and her novices the Countess Golovina and Yulia Popova began monastic life in the convent. Soon Russian émigrés began settling Nyack and bolstered the number of volunteers. One of the first secular residents was established immigrant K.N. Maleev, who donated his entire $5,000 retirement fund to the convent's cause. Fr. Adrian moved the community into a large house on Midland Avenue, paying $200 a month in rent. This property still did not meet the needs of the convent, so a daily akathist and other prayers were said before St. Ambrose of Optina's copy of the Vladimir icon of the Mother of God, which had been rescued from destruction by Fr. Adrian.

Establishment

Refugee nuns on the Island of Samar and from Gorny Convent in Jerusalem were invited to Novo-Diveevo, and Abbess Elizabeth (Ampenoff) appointed superior. The official opening of the monastery took place on the Feast of the Presentation of the Theotokos, 1949. Bishop Nikon officiated the Divine Liturgy in the Chapel of the Dormition, with Fr. Adrian, Archpriest John Legky, and hierodeacon Pimen (Kachan) as concelebrants. Prominent figures in attendance included President Sophia Mikhailovna Dragomirov-Lukomsky of the Russian Christian Labor Movement, Baroness Elena Petrovna Meyendorff (née Wrangel), and Rossiya newspaper editor N. Rybakov. Countess Golovina and Yulia Popova were soon tonsured as Catherine and Barbara, respectively.

In 1950 it became known that a piece of land belonging to the Roman Catholic Institution of Mercy in Nanuet, New York, was being sold for only $30,000, with the only stipulation for acquisition that its historical sanctity be respected in the future development of the property, to which the nature of Novo-Diveevo obliged. Fr. Adrian travelled to New York City to secure a loan, with Prince Dmitry as his translator. They visited ten banks on foot in the rain, but were denied interest-free loans because they could provide no financial guarantee. Finally, Charles W. Hawkins, president of the First National Bank in Spring Valley, agreed on a $15,000 loan. The remaining half was donated by Maleev. The land was officially purchased in May of 1951.

The severity of the Arab-Israeli Conflict effectively stranded Abbess Elizabeth and her nuns from Gorny inside East Jerusalem. In January of 1951, Metropolitan Anastasy (Gribanovsky) of Kishinev released her from rectoral duties, appointing Nun Catherine (Golovina) as temporary administrator. A superior was found in the newly-immigrated Schema-abbess Mikhaila (Mertsalova), who had fled the Moscow Patriarchate's takeover of her convent in Peking. Mother Mikhaila and her nuns were halted in San Francisco due to the failing health of the elderly Mother Juliana, only arriving upon the Feast of the Meeting of the Lord. They were welcomed by Abp. Nikon, who served a Moleben of Thanksgiving.

Expansion and Influence

Through the generous donations of the churchwarden Prince Sergei Sergeievich and Princess Florence Beloselsky-Belozersky, A.A. Pashkov, and others, Fr. Adrian was able to build a cemetery for the Russian Diaspora, divided into five tracts and able to fit approximately 5,000 graves. On August 24, 1952, Metropolitan Anastasy led the blessing of the cemetery before the Kursk Root icon of the Mother of God, co-served by Archbishop James (Toombs) of Manhattan, Bishop Seraphim of Holy Trinity, Bishop Nikon of Florida, Archimandrite Averky (Taushev), Fr. Adrian, and Priest Seraphim Slobodskoy, among others. An antiphonal liturgy was served, with the monastic choir under the direction of P.P. Didenko and neighboring Nyack choir under M.M. Rodzianko. Approximately 500 faithful attended the services, travelling anywhere from Washington DC to Seattle. The rite was researched by Abp. Vitaly through Serbian sources.

After the festal celebrations, Fr. Adrian saw a need to build a larger, freestanding church dedicated to St. Seraphim of Sarov. He enlisted Protodeacon Cornelius Chigrinov as head architect, whose occupation was house painting. The impoverished émigré artist Nicholas Alexandrovich Popkov painted the frescoes and designed the iconostasis and chandelier, asking only for a roof over his head and a bowl of soup in return. After the completion of St. Seraphim Church, Popkov became a well-respected iconographer and was invited to fresco many more ROCOR churches.

On October 3, 1963, Protopresbyter Adrian Rymarenko's wife Matushka Eugenia Grigorievna fell asleep in the Lord, and was buried in the Novo-Diveevo Cemetery. On October 14, he was tonsured a monk with the name Andrew and elevated to Bishop of Rockland in 1968, all the while continuing to reside in the convent next to the new church. That same year, the New York Transit Authority had publicized their intent to transform Ramapo Valley Airport, a neighboring flight school and small airport, into a hub for jet planes and other large air taxi services. The Transit Authority's plan included the requisition of a sizable chunk of monastery property, which would have made it near impossible to live in a monastic fashion. The invested financiers had made it very clear that the convent grounds could not be extricated.

A court battle between the NY Transport Authority and Novo-Diveevo Convent ensued. Bishop Andrew rallied Rockland County locals, and both church and secular circles of Russian society, through which eventually came support from influential figures in New York City, providing the convent the ability to hire expert lawyers. Under their experienced advocacy, the New York State Assembly unanimously agreed to kill the project in 1970. The influence and prestige of Novo-Diveevo and Bishop Andrew had grown from this event to such that a stream of letters and congratulations came to them from New York State assemblymen, Rockland County locals and officials, and celebratory and interest articles written in local newspapers. The amount of nuns grew to 40, and as many as 50,000 Orthodox made pilgrimage to Novo-Diveevo a year. During this time, Mother Mikhaila reposed in the Lord in 1969 and her assistant Mother Christina was appointed superior and elevated to the rank of abbess.

By this time, Russian Émigré society experienced a growing population of elderly people left without family. In 1972, Bp. Andrew took to erecting a main building for Novo-Diveevo, with an attached old peoples home. The structure of the complex would allow for the nuns to live on one side, and the elderly on the other. The cost of the center would cost $600,000 dollars, most of which was borrowed from local banks, though much was accumulated by the deaness. The convent fell short of the price, but the contractor agreed to complete construction on credit. For his accomplishments, Bp. Andrew was raised to the rank of Archbishop of Rockland, and was congratulated by President Richard M. Nixon and Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, who remembered his accomplishments in preserving Novo-Diveevo. In 1973, P.P. Didenko succumbed to illness and Boris I. Mitrohin was appointed to temporarily fill the position of choir conductor, which he did until his death in 2012.

In 1975, Novo-Diveevo was visited by the exiled Soviet activist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Archbishop Andrew of Rockland fell asleep in the Lord on July 12, 1978. A second wing of the old peoples home was constructed in May of 1982 under the supervision of Fr. Alexander Fedorowski. Plans for the addition had been drawn up but never realized in Abp. Andrew's time. The current superior, Abbess Irene (Alexeeva) was appointed in 1992.